Misty Copeland taught Disney a thing or two about ballet for 'The Nutcracker' movie

Misty Copeland premieres Disney's "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms." Copeland recently announced she would be cutting short her season with the American Ballet Theatre to deal with an unspecified family tragedy.
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Ballerina Misty Copeland stars in "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms."(Photo: REBECCA MILLER/DISNEY ENTERPRISES)

HOLLYWOOD – The Nutcracker without ballet? You might as well have a Christmas with no tree.

Disney knew it, even as the studio revamped the classic holiday story for “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” (in theaters Friday), a modern-day tale of young Clara (Mackenzie Foy) venturing into a parallel world of candy and snow-covered wonders. With the film relying more on the 19th-century story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" than the Tchaikovsky ballet, a performance was written in for famed dancer Misty Copeland, who flew to London for four days to go en pointe for the reimagining.

“They kind of created this part for me,” says Copeland, her elegant 5-foot-2 frame curled up on a couch across the street from where the film’s premiere is about to take place. “I was like, if they didn’t have ballet in this movie, people would be like, 'What is happening?' ”

Shiver (Richard E. Grant), the Sugar Plum Fairy (Keira Knightley) and Hawthorne (Eugenio Derbez) give the lay of the lands to Clara (Mackenzie Foy) in "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms."(Photo: LAURIE SPARHAM/DISNEY ENTERPRISES)

Copeland’s career is a marvel unto itself. Now 36, she didn’t begin dancing until age 13 and in 2015 she became the first female African-American principal in the American Ballet Theatre’s 75-year history. “She’s the best in the world and therefore the biggest name in the world,” says “Nutcracker” director Lasse Hallström. “And she’s also the most graceful person I’ve ever seen move her body around.”

Misty Copeland plays the Ballerina Princess in "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms."(Photo: LAURIE SPARHAM/DISNEY ENTERPRISES)

The dancer has become an iconic figure both commercially (she's the face of Under Armour) and in pop culture (yes, that was her in Drake's “Nice for What” music video). Still, trading the Metropolitan Opera House for a Hollywood soundstage had its complications.

“It’s very difficult for dancers on most films on the sets because I don’t think there’s a true understanding of what we need in that space,” says Copeland, who has ballerina friends who performed in the movies “Black Swan” and “Red Sparrow.” “I know what it’s like to be on those sets as a dancer and you’re kind of just treated like everyone else, like an extra. They’ll come, say, at 2 a.m. and say, 'Get up, you’ve got to go do your fouettés!' "

She shakes her head. "We can’t work that way. Our bodies are our tools, and if it’s not rested or properly warmed up with enough time, then we’re going to get injured or just have a really bad product on the screen.”

Copeland's team made Disney aware that she, like all professional dancers, begins her day by warming up with a ballet class every morning – no matter if she’s on the road for a book tour or performing "Swan Lake" at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Even Hallström left the "Nutcracker" set with a new appreciation for Copeland's craft. “To be there to learn about the physical pain you go through, the kind of warm-up you need for every take – I had a lot of respect for dancers, but it grew as I watched her in action,” he says.

Today, Copeland chuckles over the luxury of her Hollywood glam squad ahead of the "Nutcracker" premiere. Prior to opening night at the ballet in New York, for example, she's running from dance class to rehearsal to a tiny changing area for the red carpet – and all of that is followed by her performance, another gown and a dinner schmoozing with donors.

"It’s not glamorous. Like, at all. This is actually glamorous," she laughs, painting a Zen picture of the spacious hotel room where her hair and makeup team will soon arrive.

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You've never seen 'The Nutcracker' like this.
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These days, Copeland is at ease. Confidence, she says, is what’s changed in her 30s.

“It’s just nice to feel like I don't have to try to be someone I’m not. Also, when you get older, you’re so tired you don’t care,” she says. Her favored Christmas plans? Jetting off to a warm locale with her husband “and going somewhere that literally I can sleep for like three days straight before I start the vacation.”

Copeland has been married to lawyer Olu Evans for two years, but the couple has been together since she was 21. She doesn’t get stage fright before her performances, but he does. “He gets so nervous, like it’s not enjoyable for him to watch me. He is like freaking out the whole time,” she says with a grin.

Her hope is that the new “Nutcracker” will help push diversity in ballet even farther. “I feel like in the future, they’re just going to say, 'Oh that’s what a ballerina looks like.' Instead of ‘Oh, my God, that’s a black ballerina in this film!’ It gives children an opportunity to dream.”

Just don’t leave the theater early: A bonus ballet awaits. In the end credits, "there’s another dance sequence that is my favorite part of the film,” she promises.

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